The problem is that after I unistalled the asmhome I removed everything
else including the initfiles and all references to the ASM instance so
it is gone except the installer thinks it is still there so I am unable
to reinstall/recreate ASM. The error the installer generates is...

You have chosen to configure Automatic Storage Management (ASM) on the
following nodes:

banacek
rockford
Though there is no ASM instance configured for the local node, the
Oracle Universal Installer has detected the existence of an ASM instance
on the following remote nodes:
banacek
rockford
If you want to configure ASM on this node, you must extend the ASM
cluster of instances to this node (using the Add Instance procedure),
rather than choosing to configure a new ASM instance during the install.
INFO: User Selected: Yes/OK

Can you query the /dev/oracleasm/disks and confirm whether it has the
entries similar to the output from /etc/init.d/oracleasm listdisks.
If you can see that , then manually startup the asminstance and before
opening

issue alter system set asm_diskstring='ORCL:*','/dev/oracleasm/disks/'
scope=both;

Then open the ASM instance. ALternatively you can change the
asm_diskstring init.parameter to include the /dev/oracleasm/disks path
before starting up.

Thanks for the response. I believe I followed instructions correctly. As
to cluvfy, I did run that but I agree with the comment that it is
inaccurate. I was able to successfully install and patch CRS after which
I ran cluvfy -stage predbsinst. The first time I ran it I ran it from
the node on which I was doing the installation and it failed. It
returned an error indicating that the permissions on the
/tmp/CVI_10.2.0.1.0.1_dba differed on the two nodes in the cluster. I
looked carefully at the files and also asked the system admin to look
and other than timestamps we saw no differences. So for fun I ran cluvfy
from the second node, it succeeded and said everything was fine and all
tests passed. So for fun I went back and ran it again from the first
node and this time it succeeded and said everything passed. I have seen
this behavior with cluvfy in the past. On several occasions it has given
inconsistent results.

It was at this point I decided that somehow I had not configured asmlib
correctly (See my post Further adventures in the world of RAC - Part 2)
decided to remove the ASM instance and that's where I got into the
trouble noted in this post. I have used the information in the note you
referenced but at this point the CRS install is not the problem, it is
the ASM install that is causing difficulties.

I have not opened an SR yet, I will do that this morning but to be quite
honest, on several occasions in the past when I have opened SRs
regarding RAC problems and posted the answers to this list I have gotten
the answers from this list much more quickly than I have from Oracle. It
just doesn't seem like there is anyone from Oracle who is very
experienced with RAC.

I had quickly browsed thru your adventurees. :) Believe me RAC install
is very simple and straight forward if you religiuoly complete the pre
requisites. Lot of times we complete the RAC installs in less than few
hours.

Couple of questions.

Did you run the clusterverify (cluvfy) sucessfully?
Did you create the partitions for ASM disks and set the ownerships
correclty.
Were you able to read the asm disks from all the nodes.? (simple dd)
What is the EXACT error message from asm alert log?

In case if you have already a TAR/SR open let us know the SR# and some
one in this list may be able to look the SR and help you.

If you want to cleanup the crs installs just have a look at the note
Note:239998.1 Subject: 10g RAC: How to Clean Up After a Failed CRS
Install